This is a drugmaker’s nightmare: you test a product and the population still develops the disease you hope to prevent.

That’s apparently what happened with Polydex Pharmaceutical’s HIV gel in clinical trials in South Africa, where some women contracted HIV. Until then, the preventative gel was so popular that some women in the trials were reportedly selling the gel to others. Now, though, the government is ordering an investigation into whether the trials were organized and conducted properly.

“I have asked the National Health Research Ethics Council to conduct a thorough investigation into this matter,” Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang said in a statement given Reuters.

Last week, Polydex issued a statement insisting its Ushercell microbicide gel had been safe up to this point. The Toronto-based company had no idea why this happened, but hoped to learn from the experience and, meanwhile, said the gel is still a candidate for development, at least as a contraceptive.

Really? How many properly informed women do you think will reach for the gel?

[tags]AIDS, Clinical Trials, Polydex Pharmaceuticals, South Africa[/tags]